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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20TH —
SERVICES AT NEW HOMESTEAD
ESTHER CIRCLE MEETS TODAY IN
ADAIR U.M.C. AT 7 P.M.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 23RD —
A-C FOOD PANTRY - CASEY U.M.C.
9 A.M. TO 11 A.M.
• Bill Hocamp Committal Service at 2 P.M.
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SUNDAY, AUGUST 24TH –
COLOR: GREEN
11TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
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SCRIPTURE READINGS —
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EXODUS 1:8-2:10
THE MESSAGE (MSG)
A shift from the “First Families” (Abraham
through Joseph) to a first leader/deliverer
of their descendants (Moses).
This story continues to offer a wellspring
of hope to oppressed people everywhere.
• A pharaoh who did not know the family
of Joseph made his descendents into
hard labor slaves and tried to reduce their
numbers by infanticide. Hebrew midwives
and the daughter of Pharoah had other
ideas, so Moses was raised in the royal
household. Life and compassion trump
fear and oppression every time.
EXODUS 1:8-2
NEW KING WHO DIDN'T KNOW JOSEPH
8-10 A new king came to power in Egypt
who didn't know Joseph. He spoke to his
people in alarm, "There are way too many
of these Israelites for us to handle. We've
got to do something: Let's devise a plan
to contain them, lest if there's a war they
should join our enemies, or just walk off
and leave us."
11-14 So they organized them into work-
gangs and put them to hard labor under
gang-foremen.
Rameses for Pharaoh. But the harder
the Egyptians worked them the more
children the Israelites had — children
everywhere! The Egyptians got so they
couldn't stand the Israelites and treated
them worse than ever, crushing them
with slave labor.
labor—making bricks and mortar and
back-breaking work in the fields. They
piled on the work, crushing them under
the cruel workload.
15-16 The king of Egypt talked with the
two Hebrew midwives; one was named
Shiphrah and the other Puah. He said,
"When you deliver the Hebrew women,
look at the sex of the baby. If it's a boy,
kill him; if it's a girl, let her live."
17-18 But the midwives had far too much
respect for God and didn't do what the
king of Egypt ordered; they let the boy
babies live.
"Why didn't you obey my orders? You've
let those babies live!"
19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, "The
Hebrew women aren't like the Egyptian
women; they're vigorous. Before the
midwife can get there, they've already had
the baby."
20-21 God was pleased with the midwives.
The people continued to increase in
number—a very strong people. Because
the midwives honored God, God gave
them families of their own.
22 So Pharaoh issued a general order to
all his people: "Every boy that is born,
drown him in the Nile. Let the girls live."
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PSALM 124 (UMH 846)
THE MESSAGE (MSG)
A PILGRIM SONG OF DAVID
1-5 If God hadn't been for us
—all together now, Israel, sing out!—
If God hadn't been for us
when everyone went against us,
We would have been swallowed alive
by their violent anger,
Swept away by the flood of rage,
drowned in the torrent;
We would have lost our lives
in the wild, raging water.
6 Oh, blessed be God!
He didn't go off and leave us.
He didn't abandon us defenseless,
helpless as a rabbit in a
pack of snarling dogs.
7 We've flown free from their fangs,
free of their traps, free as a bird.
Their grip is broken;
we're free as a bird in flight.
8 God's strong name is our help,
the same God who made
heaven and earth.
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ROMANS 12:1-8
THE MESSAGE (MSG)
Against the backdrop of a mixed Jewish -
Gentile community, Paul calls for the
Christians at Rome to offer themselves
fully to God with minds not conformed to
a Jewish-Gentile dichotomy/enmity
paradigm, but transformed by awareness
that we are being made into one body,
each of us with different gifts. Christians
of whatever background are to live as one
body in Christ together.
PLACE YOUR LIFE BEFORE GOD
1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God
helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary
life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work,
and walking-around life—and place it
before God as an offering. Embracing
what God does for you is the best thing
you can do for him. Don't become so well
adjusted to your culture that you fit into it
without even thinking. Instead, fix your
attention on God. You'll be changed from
the inside out. Readily recognize what he
wants from you, and quickly respond to it.
Unlike the culture around you, always
dragging you down to its level of
immaturity, God brings the best out of you,
develops well-formed maturity in you.
3 I'm speaking to you out of deep
gratitude for all that God has given me,
and especially as I have responsibilities in
relation to you. Living then, as every one
of you does, in pure grace, it's important
that you not misinterpret yourselves as
people who are bringing this goodness to
God. No, God brings it all to you. The only
accurate way to understand ourselves is
by what God is and by what he does for
us, not by what we are and what we do for
him.
4-6 In this way we are like the various
parts of a human body. Each part gets its
meaning from the body as a whole, not
the other way around. The body we're
talking about is Christ's body of chosen
people. Each of us finds our meaning and
function as a part of his body. But as a
chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we
wouldn't amount to much, would we? So
since we find ourselves fashioned into all
these excellently formed and marvelously
functioning parts in Christ's body, let's
just go ahead and be what we were made
to be, without enviously or pridefully
comparing ourselves with each other, or
trying to be something we aren't.
6-8 If you preach, just preach God's
Message, nothing else; if you help, just
help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to
your teaching; if you give encouraging
guidance, be careful that you don't get
bossy; if you're put in charge, don't
manipulate; if you're called to give aid to
people in distress, keep your eyes open
and be quick to respond; if you work with
the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get
irritated with them or depressed by them.
Keep a smile on your face.
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MATTHEW 16:13-20
THE MESSAGE (MSG)
In a stronghold of Roman authority, Jesus
asks the disciples whom others say he is.
Peter confesses, "You are the Messiah,
the Son of the living God." Jesus then
calls Peter and the church in which he
death, assured of victory, and to take
authority to "bind and loose" on earth.
SON OF MAN, SON OF GOD
13 When Jesus arrived in the villages of
Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples,
"What are people saying about who the
Son of Man is?"
14 They replied, "Some think he is John
the Baptizer, some say Elijah, some
Jeremiah or one of the other prophets."
15 He pressed them,"And how about you?
Who do you say I am?"
the Messiah, the Son of the living God."
17-18 Jesus came back, "God bless you,
Simon, son of Jonah! You didn't get that
answer out of books or from teachers. My
Father in heaven, God himself, let you in
on this secret of who I really am. And now
I'm going to tell you who you are, really
are. You are Peter, a rock. This is the rock
on which I will put together my church, a
church so expansive with energy that not
even the gates of hell will be able to keep
it out.
19 "And that's not all. You will have
complete and free access to God's
kingdom, keys to open any and every
door: no more barriers between heaven
and earth, earth and heaven. A yes on
earth is yes in heaven. A no on earth is no
in heaven."
20 He swore the disciples to secrecy. He
made them promise they would tell no one
that he was the Messiah.
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Happy Birthday Amber McClain!
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• 0079 - Mount Vesuvius erupted killing
approximately 20,000 people. The cities
of Pompeii, Stabiae and Herculaneum
were buried in volcanic ash.
• 0410 - The Visigoths overran Rome. This
event symbolized the fall of the Western
Roman Empire.
• 1456 - Printing of the Gutenberg Bible
was completed.
• 1572 - The Catholics began the slaughter
of the French Protestants in Paris.This war
claimed about 70,000 people.
• 1814 - Washington, DC, was invaded by
British forces that set fire to the White
House and Capitol. Among the casualties
of the destruction of the Capitol was the
Library of Congress. The entire 3,000
volume collection was destroyed.
Less than a day after the attack began, a
sudden heavy thunderstorm put out most
of the fires. The storm forced the British
troops to return to their ships, many of
which were badly damaged. The British
occupation of Washington lasted less than
26 hours.
• 1949 - North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) went into effect. The agreement
was that an attack against one of the
parties would be considered "an attack
against them all."
• 1959 - Three days after Hawaiian
statehood, Hiram L. Fong was sworn in as
the first Chinese-American U.S. senator
while Daniel K. Inouye was sworn in as the
first Japanese-American U.S.
representative.
• 2001 - Remains of nine American
servicemen killed during the Korean War
(1950-53) are returned home to the United
States.
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MONDAY, AUGUST 25TH —
Office is closed today.
NEW BEGINNINGS OPEN BIBLE CHURCH
• Guest Day hosted by the women of New
Beginnings Open Bible Church:
Monday, August 25th- 9:30-11:00 A.M. at
the Saint's center in Stuart, IA (lower level).
Special Speaker Dina Petrou from Greece.
(Founder of House of Damaris, a Christian
safe house for victims of people trafficking
and prostitution).
Limited seating - please RSVP.
Contact Donna Baker at 712-330-1620 or
Mary Porter at 641-332-2550
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— CLERGY DAY APART —
CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY RETREAT
CENTER AT GRISWOLD, IOWA
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• 1718 - Hundreds of colonists from France
arrived in Louisiana. Many settled in what
is present-day New Orleans.
• 1916 - The National Park Service was
established as part of the U.S. Department
of the Interior.
• 1944 - Paris, France, was liberated by
Allied forces ending four years of German
occupation.
• 1998 - A survey released said that 1/3 of
all Americans use the Internet.
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TUESDAY, AUGUST 26TH —
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• 55 B.C. - England was invaded by Roman
forces led by Julius Caesar.
• 1498 - Michelangelo was commissioned
to sculpture the "Pieta." It is the only piece
Michelangelo ever signed. In 1964, The
Pietà was lent by the Vatican to the 1964-65
New York World's Fair installed in the
Vatican pavilion. People stood in line for
hours to catch a glimpse from a conveyor
belt moving past the sculpture. It was
returned to the Vatican after the fair.
• 1873 - The school board of St. Louis, MO,
authorized a first U.S. public kindergarten.
• 1920 - The 19th amendment to the U.S.
Constitution went into effect. This
amendment prohibited discrimination on
the basis of sex in the voting booth.
• 1990 - The 55 Americans of the U.S.
Embassy in Kuwait left Baghdad by car
and headed for the Turkish border.
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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27TH —
Happy Birthday Margaret Sullins!
Happy BirthdaySharon Aupperle!
— — — — — — — — — — —
• Services at New Homestead
7 P.M. - Adair Ad Council
7:30 P.M. - Casey Ad Council
8 P.M. - Combined Ad Councils
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• 1789 - The Declaration of the Rights of
Man was adopted by the French National
Assembly. Many of these are forerunners
of our own U. S. Constitution.
• 1921 - The owner of Acme Packing
Company bought a pro football team from
Green Bay, WI. J.E. Clair paid tribute to
those who worked in his plant by naming
the team the Green Bay Packers. (NFL)
• 1938 - Robert Frost, in a fit of jealousy,
set fire to papers to disrupt a poetry recital
by another poet, Archibald MacLeish.
• 1981 - Work began on recovering a safe
from the Andrea Doria. The Andrea Doria
was a luxury liner that had sank in 1956
in the waters off of Massachusetts. The
safe, opened on live television in 1984,
yielded thousands of American silver
certificates, Canadian bank notes,
American Express travellers checks and
Italian bank notes, but no other valuables.
• 2001 - Work began on the future site of a
World War II memorial on the U.S. capital's
historic national Mall. The site is between
the Washington Monument and the
Lincoln Memorial.
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THURSDAY, AUGUST 28TH —
Happy Birthday Gage Noland!
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• 1609 - Delaware Bay was discovered by
Henry Hudson.
• 1833 - Slavery was banned by the British
Parliament throughout the British Empire.
• 1907 - "American Messenger Company"
was started by two teenagers, Jim Casey
and Claude Ryan. The company's name
was changed to "United Parcel Service."
• 1963 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave
his "I Have a Dream" speech at a civil
rights rally in Washington, DC. More than
200,000 people attended.
• 1972 - Mark Spitz captured the first of his
seven gold medals at the Summer
Olympics in Munich, Germany. He set a
world record in the 200-meter butterfly.
• 1990 - Iraq declared Kuwait to be its 19th
province and renamed Kuwait City
al-Kadhima.
• 2004 - George Brunstad, at age 70, was
the oldest person to swim the English
Channel. His swim from Dover, England,
to Sangatte, France, took 15 hours and 59
minutes.
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FRIDAY, AUGUST 29TH —
Happy Birthday Jim Rogers!
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• 1833 - The "Factory Act" was passed in
England to settle child labor laws.
• 1944 - During the continuing celebration
of the liberation of France from the Nazis,
15,000 American troops marched down
the Champs Elysees in Paris.
• 1945 - U.S. General Douglas MacArthur
left for Japan to officially accept the
surrender of the Japanese.
• 1949 - At the University of Illinois, a
nuclear device was used for the first time
to treat cancer patients. That device is
now called a Linear Accelerator.
• 1957 - Senator Strom Thurmond of South
Carolina set a filibuster record in the U.S.
as he spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes.
• 1983 - The anchor of the USS Monitor,
from the U.S. Civil War, was brought up by
searching divers.
• 1990 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, in
a television interview, declared that
America could not defeat Iraq.
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SATURDAY, AUGUST 30TH —
Happy Birthday Lee Garside!
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• 1146 - European leaders outlawed the
crossbow.
• 1682 - William Penn sailed from England
and later established the colony of
Pennsylvania in America.
• 1941 - During World War II, the Nazis
severed the last railroad link between
Leningrad and the rest of the Soviet Union.
• 1960 - A partial blockade was imposed on
West Berlin by East Germany.
• 1965 - Thurgood Marshall was confirmed
by the U.S. Senate as a Supreme Court
justice. Marshall was the first black justice
to sit on the Supreme Court.
• 1991 - The Soviet republic of Azerbaijan
declared its independence.
• 1994 - The largest U.S. defense contractor
was created when the Lockheed and
Martin Marietta corporations merged.
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Thank you for your continued diligence
and perseverance this week. The children
are now back in school and Labor Day is
next week. How quickly the summer has
gone and we are adjusting to a school
routine.
some of your own favorite vacationing.
God Bless and Keep You,
Donna
